The daily grind: 8-16-13

The Daily Grind provides daily match-up advice for tinkerers and daily fantasy players. I welcome advice to help make this column more effective, including notice of impending weather events, new injuries, and changes to platoon situations. Ownership rates are from Yahoo!

The daily picks are a mixture of Daily League specific advice and information for the more typical fantasy owner.

Today’s weather watch

The good weather continues to hold up. Only Atlanta has a significant chance of rain and that’s only a 30 percent chance for “few showers.”

Today’s grind

Today is deep so you daily leaguers should jump all over it. Don’t forget that the Tigers and Royals play two and Jose Alvarez is confirmed for the second game.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): John Lackey remains available in 41 percent of Yahoo leagues. His match-up with the Yankees isn’t the best, but he’s showing good enough stuff and peripherals to use him against all but the very best lineups.

Joe Kelly is one of the least exciting fantasy options out there due to a middling strikeout rate and non-elite walk rate, but his match-up with the Cubs increases his odds of pulling down a win.

Andrew Albers has been doing his best to show Jarred Cosart how it’s done. In two starts, he’s thrown 17.1 innings, allowed only six hits, walked one, and struck out four. That adds up to a .113 BABIP against, which I suggest is unsustainable. He’s not a great streaming option, but he does face the White Sox piddling offense. That gives him a chance to contribute in ERA and WHIP, but I’d still stay away.

Jenrry Mejia is the best option for today. He will face the Padres and so long as his currently elite walk rate remains above average, he should be a fairly reliable fantasy starter.

Pitcher (bum): Chad Bettis pitched well last time out, but the Orioles’ lineup is difficult to beat on a good day.

It’s not that a game against the Dodgers is a terrible match-up for Kyle Kendrick, it’s that with Clayton Kershaw opposing him, he stands very little chance of earning a win. He certainly doesn’t contribute to the other three categories enough to consider.

Wade Davis has been hurt by a high BABIP of .373, but he still features a 4.23 FIP and that’s the kind of pitcher that the Tigers can pummel.

A match-up with Volquez is a good time to mention that Ike Davis is once again playing second half fantasy hero.

Avisail Garcia has a little more swing and miss in his game than I expected, but a start against the contact-oriented Albers may be just the ticket for a good outing.

Try Matt Davidson against lefty Jeff Locke. You may just want to own Davidson outright thanks to a skill set that should produce a strong average and at least 20 home runs plus stolen bases over a full season.

Hitter (speed): There’s always money in the banana stand and there’s always Eric Young Jr. waiting on the wire to steal you a base or two.

Pitchers to come

Sunday: Ricky Nolasco versus the Phillies remains the name to watch. After perusing the list, I’m going to have an easy column to write tomorrow.

Noteworthy news

About Brad Johnson

Brad is a former collegiate player who writes for FanGraphs, MLB Trade Rumors, The Hardball Times, RotoWorld, and The Fake Baseball. He's also the lead MLB editor for RotoBaller. Follow him on Twitter @BaseballATeam or email him here.

No love for Garrett Richards on Saturday? 2.17 ERA, sub-1.00 WHIP in last 30 innings, at home vs the Astros (a.k.a., The Human Fans, with over 9 K’s per game) and Keuchel, an un-imposing 6.30 ERA and 1.48 WHIP the last 24 innings. I’d take him over the choices given at least.